ETHICS

MORALITY is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.
(IMMANUEL KANT)
Brief background of philosophy
 Philosophy is the nation of WISDOM

 Philosophy is the an enquiry of all BEINGS

 Philosophy on its ultimate causes,reasons and principle

 Ethics is a branch philosophy

THE HISTORICAL DIVISION OF PHILOSOPHY

Western
 Ancient-Nature & Morality

 Medieval-God & Morality

 Renaissance-Beauty & Morality

 Modern-Science & Morality

 Contemporary(virtual)- Technology & Morality

Eastern
 Chinses-Society and Morality

 Hindu-Belief & Morality

HISTORY PHILOSOPHY
 ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY (From Eastern & Western Greece, 16th Century BCE-529 CE)

 PRESOCRATICS (Focus- Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Biology)

 IONIAN PHILOSOPHERS (640-475 BCE) Thales of Miletus, Anaximander of Miletus,

Anaximes, Heriditus of Ephasus *Focus- Sought the principle of things, and the mode
of their origin and disappearance.
 PYTHAGORREANS (582 BCE-5TH century BCE) Pythagoras of Samos, Damon Gave
philosophy its name: "LOVE OF WISDOM" *Focus-Mathematics, Mysticism, Science
 ELEATIC PHILOSOPHERS (570 BCE-5th century BCE) Xenophanes of Colophon,
Parmenides of Elea, Zeno of Elea, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae(500 BCE), Empedocles
 of Agrigentum(492 BCE) *Focus-Metaphysics, Relationship between change & eternal
unity
 ATOMISTS (5th century BCE) Leucippus, Democritus *Focus- Believed in the doctrine
of atoms, or small primary bodies infinite in number, indivisible and imperishable.
 OLDER SOPHISTS (5TH century BCE-375 BCE) Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Prodicus
*Focus- Grammar, Relativity, Agnosticism
GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHY (from Central Greece, 469 BCE)
 PLATONISM (469-Present day) Socrates, Plato *Focus- The theory of forms, as well as
a threefold division of philosophy into dialectic, ethics, & physics. Aristotle *Focus-
Works scientifically from the particular to the universal, Philosophy as science, Ethics.
 STOICS (310-180 AD) Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes of Assos, Chrysippus of Soli
~continues in ancient Rome~ *Focus- Practical application of previous thought. Virtue
is good, vice is bad, everything else in the world is indifferent.
 EPICUREANISM (342-BCE) Epicurus ~continues in ancient Rome~

 PYRRHONIAN SKEPTICISM (365 BCE)

 ROMAN PHILOSOPHY (155 BCE- 525 CE) *Focus- Many Roman Philosophers tried to
make philosophy accessible even to those outside of learned circles.
 SKEPTICISM- Sextus Empiricus

 EPICUREANISM- Lucretius

 ELECTICISM- Cicero, Apuleius of Madaura

 PHTHGOREANISM- Nigidius Figulus

 STOICISM- Seneca the Younger, Cornutus and Marcus Aurelius

EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT (100-525 CE) *Focus- Fleshing out of basic Christian concepts.
The soul, the trinity, and justifying Christian views of science and history.
 Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Saint Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius of
Alexandria, Saint Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
THE MIDDLE AGES (5th century-16th century CE) Classic philosophy was blended with
Christian thought or forgotten.
 NEOPLATONISM (475-526 CE) Boethius *Focus- Platonic reverence of reason and
truth coupled with Christian allegories.
  SHOLASTICISM (1100-1700) Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas,
John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham *Focus- Use of logic, dialectic, and analysis
techniques of ancient thinkers to explore theological issues and defend dogma.
THE RENAISSANCE (14th-17th century)
 ARISTOTLIANISM

 AVERROISM (1429-1538) Paul of Venice, Alessandro Achillini, Elijah del Medigo,

Nicoletto Vernia, Agostino Nifo *Focus- Immorality of the soul as justified in
Aristotelian texts and commentaries.
 SCIENTIFIC & SECULAR ARUSTOTELIANS (1462-1589) Pietro Pomponazzi, Jacopo
Zabarella *Focus- A scientific look at the intellect as part of the body, development of
logic and scientific method.
 SOCIETY OF JESUS (1492-1617) Francisco de Vitoria, Pedro da Fonseca, Francisco de
Toledo, Francisco Suarez *Focus- Apply Aristotle to metaphysics and philosophy of la.
Laid foundation for the law of nations and the just war theory.
 HUMANISM (1304-1536) Francesco Petrarca, Coluccio Salutati, Leonardo Bruni,
Poggio Bracciolini, Lorenzo Valla, Rudolph Agricola, Mario Nizolio, Juan Luis Vives,
Petrus Ramus, Desiderius Erasmus, Niccolo Machivell *Focus- Heightened emphasis
on moral philosophy, reform, and the good life instead of purely scholastic
Aristotelian.
 PLATONISM (1360-1547) George Gemistos Plethon, Cardinal Bessarion, Marsilio
Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Nicholas of Cusa, Judah ben Isaac Abravanel,
Pietro Bembo *Focus- Recovered Platonic and neoplatonic texts mixed with
humanism to provide a new framework through which philosophy led one closer to
God.
 NEW NATURAL PHILOSOPHIES (1473-1638) Nicolas Copernicus, Bernardino Telesio,
Francesco Patrizi, Giordano Bruno, Tommaso Campanella *Focus- Rejection of
Aristotelian science and attempts at a more honest scientific inquiry into the natural
world.
 SKEPTICISM (1469-1623) Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Agrippa von Nettesheim,
Michel de Montaigne, Francisco Sanches *Focus- The unreliability of the senses and
the inability to justify what is knowledge. Used foe attacks on paganism, science, and
Aristotelianism.
MODERN PHILOSOPHY (17th century-20th century)
 RATIONALITS (1596-1716) Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Nicolas Malebranche,
 Gottlieb Leibniz *Focus- A response to scholasticism through skepticism. Ordinary
methods of science and reasoning are fallible but not false.
 EMPIRICISTS (1632-1776) John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume *Focus-
Theories of knowledge should be grounded in experience and physical evidence.
Sensory perception is involved in the formation of ideas, rather than innate notions.
 POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (1588-1895) John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jeremy
Bentham, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels *Focus- Rethought
the need for political structures, discusses what makes a government good, what
nights and freedoms we have, and wha duties citizens have.
 GERMAN IDEALISM (1724-1924) Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, George W.
Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich W. Joseph Schelling, Arthur Schopenhauer, Francis Herbert
Bradley *Focus- Related to skepticism in the assertion that reality is but a construct of
our mind, and probably immaterial.
 PRAGMATISM (1839-2007) Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey,
Richard Rorty *Focus- The function of thought is not to describe, represent or mirror
reality, instead thought is a tool for prediction, action and problem solving.
 EXISTENTIALSTS (1813-1980) Soren, Kserkegaard, Friedrich Wilheim Nietzsche, Karl
Jaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre *Focus- Experience of
the individual are central. Moral and scientific thinking are not enough, a further set
of categories based on authenticity is necessary.
 PHENOMENOLOGY (1859-1961) Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice
Merleau-Ponty *Focus- Creating a scientific and objective-centered method for
looking at topics normally regarded as subjective. Namely, our experiences and
consciousness.
 ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY(1848-1970) Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, George
Edward Moore, Moritz Schlick, Rudolf Camap, Ludwig Wittgenstein. *Focus- Emphasis
on clarity, formal logic, analysis of language, and the natural sciences.
 ORDINARY LANGUAGE PHILOSOPHY(1889-1976) Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.L Austin,
Gilbert Ryle. *Focus- Push to eschew traditional philosophical theories. Belief that
traditional philosophical programs are rooted in linguistics mistakes committed by
philosophers. Remedied by the way words are used in everyday use.
CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
 MYRAID THPES (Philosophy of Religion, Political Philosophy, Analytic Metaphysics,
Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, and Aesthetics)
 POST-STRUCTURALISTS (1901-2009) Jacques Lacan, Claude Levi-Strauss, Gilles

Deleuze, Micheal Foucault, Jacques Derrida. *Focus- One major is the instability of the
human sciences. Humans are exceeding complex, and it is impossible to escape
human structures so as to study them.
 POSTANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY (1908-Present) W.V Quine, Donald Davidson, Richard
Rorty, Hilary Putnam. *Focus- Closely associated to American Pragmatism. Advocates
a detachment from objective truth an emphasis on utility, convention, and social
progress.
BRANCHES OF PHILOSOPHY
I. Theoretical Branches
a. Metaphysics- Branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the
first principles of being, identity, and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and
possibility.
b. Cosmology- Branch of philosophy that deals with the origin and the development of
the universe with the regards of space, time, causality and freedom. From Greek word
KOSMOS which means world or universe and LOGOS means study.
c. Axiology- Derived from the Greek mean "VALUE OR WORTH", and is primarily
concerned with classifying things as good and how good they are. Theory of value,
axiology is the philosophical study of goodness or the worth of something. The study
of the nature, types, and criteria of values and of value judgments.
d. Ethics- Branch of philosophy deals with morality and principle of act of man and
human act.
II. Practical Branch
a. Logic- A branch of philosophy which deals with the nature of thinking and reasoning
using empirical support. Science and art or reasoning and methods of detect fallacies
in argument.
b. Aesthetics- Philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely related to the
philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in terms
of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated.
III. 4 Foundation of philosophy/ Primary Branches of Philosophy
 Metaphysics
  Logic
 Epistemology
 Ethics

PHILOSOPHY
 Western- Greek word: Philo & Sophia "Love of Wisdom"

- Study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge,

values reason and mind.
 Eastern- Hindi Word: Darsana "Seeing of Wisdom"

- Reflection of man towards the searching for the meaning in life.

 Philosophy as Wisdom

According to ARISTOTLE
"The wise man has the knowledge of all things, in sofar as possible"
Philosophy is an inquiry that investigate all things(BIENGS) their ultimate causes,
reasons, and principles though human reason alone.
It is founded with critical thinking: Reflection, intuition, meditation, imagination and
speculation, that embraces questioning, analyzing criticizing, synthesizing, evaluating
and judgement.
IV. Ethics and Philosophy
" A man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying;
he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is good right or wrong"
-SOCRATES
NATURE OF ETHICS:
 Ethics is the practical science of the moral human actions.

 Ethics is a scientific inquiry into the principle of morality.

 Ethics is the science of human acts concerning right and wrong.

 Ethics is the study of human conduct from the standpoint of morality.

 ETHICS
o Is the study of the rectitude of human conduct.
o Is the science which lays down the principles of right living.
o Is the practical science that guides us in our actions that we may live rightly
and well.
o Is a normative and practical science, based on reason, which studies human
conduct and provides the nom for its natural integrity and honesty.
o According to SOCRATES, ethics is the investigation of life.
What is ETHICS?
 "Branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to
the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of
the motives and ends of such actions"
 At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make
decisions and lead their lives.
 Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described
as moral philosophy.
 The term is derived from Greek word ETHOS which can mean custom, habit, charter
or disposition.
 Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religious, philosophies and cultures.
They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct.
Ethics "MORAL PHILOSOPHY"
"Ethics is a code of values which guide our choices and actions and determine the
purpose and course of our lives."---Ayn Rand
ETHICS:
Moral, Principles, Honesty, Right, Fairness, Responsibility, Integrity, Value, Honor,
Choice, & Conscience

RELATIONS OF ETHICS with other sciences:

 ETHICS & LOGIC- Logic is the science of right thinking. Ethics is the science of right
living. To think right often lead to correct doing.
  ETHICS & PSYCHOLOGY- Both deal with the study of man, human nature, and human
behavior. Psychology is not interested in the morality of human behavior, unlike ethics,
but it studies how man ought in behave.
 ETHICS & SOCIOLOGY- Ethics deals with the moral order of the society which is
called SOCIAL ORDER while social studies how a particular society behaves.
 ETHICS & ECONOMICS- Man is also an economic being because he has to support
himself by earning a living, thus its relation to ethics is on the moral order of earning a
living.
 ETHICS & EDUCATION- Education develops the whole man, his moral, intellectual,
and physical capacities, hence it needs the concept of ethics to make a person whole.
 ETHICS & POLITICS- Man owes allegiance to the state. Politics aims at the good
government for the temporal welfare of the citizens. But between the temporal and
the spiritual and internal welfare there is no conflict.
 RELIGION & ETHICS- Religion is the root of morality without it, morality will die. They
are inseparable because both have the same end. The attainment of man's supreme
purpose or man's ultimate end.

TWO NATION why ETHICS as a SCIENCE

1. Standards of methods and process in terms of design, procedures, data analysis,
interpretation and reporting.
2. Standards of topics and findings the use of human and animal subjects
- It is called SCIENCE because it is the study of human behavior especially to
distinguish between right and wrong.
ETHICS differ from SCIENCE:
 SCIENCE rely on observation

 ETHICS rely on considered moral intuitions.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Ethics
 Base on instincts

 Insights
  Suspicions
 Sense of awareness on your percept

 What you believe and standardize judgment between good or evil.

Science
 Study base on facts

 Information

 Empirical data

 Inquiry base reflection

 Procedural in terms on judgement between good or evil

- According to WILLIAM JAMES there are similar of ETHICS- SCIENCE:

o COLLABORATION
o COMPARATIVE ANTHROPOLOGY
o COMPARATIVE EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OF PRIMATES
o GAME- THEORICAL MODELLING
ETHICS ON SCIENCE AND MORALITY
a) SCIENCE- A systematic study od a system of scientific conclusions demonstrated,
derived from clearly established principles and duly coordinated. It is philosphical
science, not an experiment science.
b) MORALITY- The quality of right or wrong in human acts.
c) HUMAN ACTS- Acts done with knowledge and consent.
"MORALITY" mean
 JAMES W. GRAY, 2011, Introduction to Moral philosophy, stated that Morality
involves what we ought to do, right and wrong, good and bad, values. justice, and
virtues.
 Morality is taken to be important; moral actions are often taken to merit praise and
rewards, and immoral actions are often taken to merit blame and punishment.
(Gray,2011)
 WHAT WE OUGHT TO DO- What we morally ought to do is what's morally preferable.
 It's morally preferable to give to certain charities and to refrain from hurting people
who make us angry; so we morally ought to do these things.
 RIGHT AND WRONG- Something is morally right if it's morally permissible, and
morally wrong if it's morally impermissible
 GOOD AND BAD- "Good" and "bad" refer to a positive and negative value. Something
is morally good if it helps people attain something of positive value, avoid something
of negative value, or has a positive value that merits being a goal.
 However, there are things that we ought to do, right or wrong to do, bad or good
things that have nothing to do with morality and ethics has nothing to do with
intrinsic value, (GRAY,20110)
THE IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS
1. Ethics mean right living and good moral character, and it is in good moral character
that man finds his true worth and perfection.
- Human living lies not in the acquisition of material goods or bodily pleasures, nor
the attainment of bodily perfections such as health and strength; nor even in the
development of intellectual skills but in the development of the moral qualities which
lift man far above the brute creation.
2. Education is the harmonious development of the whole man of all man's faculties: the
moral, intellectual, and physical powers in man. Now the highest of man's power and
his reason and will.
3. According to SOCRATES, "the unexamined life is not worth living for man'. Ethics is
the very investigation of the meaning of life. That is why PLATO calls and consider
ethics the supreme science, the science per excellence, as it is this science that deals
with the SUMMUM BONUM, the supreme purpose of human living.
V. THE PROPONENT PHILOSOPHERS ON ETHICS OR MORAL
PHILOSOPHY
WESTERN
- In the West, virtues founding fathers are PLATO and ARISTOTLE.
EASTERN
-In the East it can be traced back to MENCIUS and CONFUCIUS.
FATHER OF ETHICS OR MORAL PHILOSOPHY
 SOCRATES- The FATHER OF ETHICS & INQUIRY (Greatest Greek Philosophy)

- His notion on Ethics is human principle of SOUL on COURAGE OF TRUTH, between

good and evil
- It is also know VIRTUE OF MORALITY
DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY ON ETHICS
 For PLATO

- Maintains a virtue-based eudaimonistic conception of ethics.

- HAPPINESS or WELL-BEING (EUDAIMONIA) is the highest aim of moral thought and
conduct, and the virtues (aretê, excellence) are the requisite skills and dispositions
needed to attain it.
 For ARISTOTLE's

- Ethics, or study of character, is built around the premise that people should achieve
an excellent charter (a virtuous character, "ethikê aretê" in Greek) As a pre-condition
for attaining happiness or well-being.
 For EPICURUS

- Ethics is a form of egoistic hedonism: i.e. He says that the only thing that is
intrinsically valuable is one's own pleasure
-Anything else that has value is valuable merely as a means to securing pleasure for
oneself.
 For SOCRATES

-Ethics are the norms bt which acceptable and unacceptable behavior are measured.
-One develops ethics through maturity, wisdom and love.
- He believed virtue was found primarily in human relationships, love and friendship,
not though material gains.
 For MENCIUS

- Thinks that matters of ritual place legitimate ethical demands order us, but he
stresses that not categorical, and can be overridden by more exigent obligations.
- Mencius holds that all humans have innate but incipient tendencies toward
 benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, and propriety.
 For LAO TZU'S
-Ethics advocates withdrawal from society, contemplation, and cultivation of internal
virtues.
- As a quietest, he says man cannot solve social problems but ne can forsake them.
 For CONFUCIUS
- Ethics basically asserts that filial piety and fraternal love are the roots of
humaneness.
- The foundation and origin of human morality, all social goods are extensions of
family ethics.
- All action mandated from heaven.
- Great moral ethics is sageliness with in and kingliness with out.
 For ST.AUGUSTINE
-Tries to reconcile his beliefs about freewill, especially the belief that humans are
morally responsible for their actions, with his belief that one's life is predestined.
- Thought initially optimistic about the ability of humans to behave morally. The
ultimate objectives remains happiness.
- Augustine conceived of happiness as consisting of the union of the soul with God
after the body has died.
-Therefore, that Christianity received the platonic theme of the relative inferiority of
bodily pleasures.
 For AQUINAS
- Believed that we should always follow our conscience even when it is wrong or
causes great harm. Since we have no way of knowing whether our conscience are
wrong, they are the best guide we have as to what is the moral thing to do.
-This Element provides an account of THOMAS AQUINAS'S MORAL PHILOSOPHY that
emphasizes the intrinsic connection between happiness and the human good,
practical reason.
- Human achieve this end by performing good human acts, which are produced by
the intellect by the relevant virtues.
 - These virtuous acts require that the agent grasps the relevant moral principles and
uses them in particular cases.
 For IMMUNUEL KANT
- Moral philosophy is a deontological normative theory, which is to say he rejects the
utilitarian idea that the rightness of an action is a function of how fruitful its outcome.
- He says that the motive (or means), and not consequence (or end), of an action
determines its moral value.
 For JOHN MILL (1806-1873)
- Is most extensively articulated in his classical text Utilitarianism (1861).
- Its goal is to justify the utilitarian principles as the foundation of morals.
- This principles says actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote overall
human happiness.
 For JEREMY BENTHAM
- Founder of modern utilitarianism, an ethical theory holding that actions are morally
right if they tend to promote happiness or pleasure (and morally wrong if they tend
to promote unhappiness or pain) among all those affected by them.
 For RAWL'S
- Idea is that, being reasonable and rational persons (like us) who regard ourselves as
free and equal should be in a position to accept and endorse as morally justifiable the
principles of justice regulating our basic social institutions and individual conduct.
 For STEVENSON'S
- Major contribution to the philosophy was his development of emotivism.
- A theory of ethical language according to which moral judgements do not state any
sort of fact, but rather express the moral emotions of the speaker and attempt to
influence others.
 For PAUL SARTRE
- Believed in the essential freedom of individuals, and he also believed that as free
beings, people are responsible for all elements of themselves, and their consciousness.
and their actions.
- Ethics is, with total freedom comes total responsibility.
 For MARTIN HEIDEGGER
- In his masterpiece Sein und Zeit (1927) (Being and Time) he advocated a variety of
moral decisionism, or voluntarism,according to which free and resolute choices of
authentic individuals constitute their highest moral authority.
 For SOREN KIERKEGAARD
- Would argue that a divine command from God transcends ethics. This means that
God does not create human morality, that it is up to individuals to create morals and
values.
- A religious person must be prepared for a command from God that would take
precedence over all moral and even rational obligations.
 For SIGMUND FREUD'S
- Views on determinism allow for moral responsibility.
- His understanding of the pleasure principle and narcissism allows for acting out of
concern of others.
- His critique of the cultural superego id grounded in an ethic informed by ego
rationality.
 For FREDRICH NIETZSCHE'S
- Moral philosophy is primarily critical in orientation, he attacks morality both for its
commitments to untenable descriptive(metaphysical and empirical) claims about
human agency, as well as for the deleterious impact of its distinctive norms and
values on the flourishing of the highest types of human.
 For KARLMARX
- Rejected the idea that moral rules hav a divine source and imposed on human
society from the outside. But he also rejected the idea, defended by the eighteenth-
century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, that morality had a purely rational basis
 For BANDURA
- Development of moral self, individuals adopt standards of right and wrong that
serve as guides and restrains for conduct.
- Self-regulatory process, people monitor their conduct and the conditions under
which it occurs, judge it in relation to moral standards, and regulate their actions by
the consequences they apply to themselves
 - Provide them satisfaction and sense of self-worth.
- Refrain from engaging in ways that violate their moral standards in order to avoid
self-condemnation.
- Therefore, self-sanctions keep conducts inline with internal standards.
- In Bandura's view, morality is rooted in self-regulation rather than abstract
reasoning.
- He also argues that moral reasoning follows the same development continuum as
other mental processes, from concrete to abstract.
 For KOHLBERG'S
- Theory of moral development is a theory that focuses on how children develop
morality and moral reasoning.
- Kohlberg's theory suggests that moral development occurs in a series of six stages.
The theory also suggests that moral logic is primarily focused on seeking and
maintaining justice.
VI. SUMMARY ON THE MODULE 1 LESSON1
 PHILOSOPHY
- Concerned with the nature and validity of each major aspect of human existence.
 MORALITY
- Concerned with standards of right or wrong behaviour.
 MORALS
- What is concerned right or wrong behaviour based on social custom.
 ETHICS
- Concerned with the moral dimension of human life/evaluating human action.
- What is right or wrong based on reason
- Reflective and critical